What sort of distance is there between each wind turbine out at sea, and are they a potential hazard (pic)

[Trevorleach]

We took our boat out to the ones just past Sheerness, have to say the size was pretty impressive, and as that was a few years ago I would guess the new ones are much bigger.
Pics of wind farm, and bonus pic of Red Sands!

 

[Parm]

That is a long blade.Maybe they are longer on the ones for the sea. I've been quite close to some operating on dry land. They could be bit shorter?

Land based one’s are much shorter

 

[brightspark]

here

That is a long blade.Maybe they are longer on the ones for the sea. I've been quite close to some operating on dry land. They could be bit shorter?

90 meters the ones ofshore daughter worked on them for a couple of years

 

[Redsailor]

Every time I've sailed near those sea forts I always think they look like something from "War of the Worlds" when seen from a distance.

 

[weldingnovice]

The farm south of the Tees estuary didn't seem to be spced too far apart, didn't measure going from memory maybe 1/200m

Coming back from a dive off Kettleness few years ago went through the edge of the farm in the rib.

Think they may have been working on some masts on the other end of the farm. Big cat boat came by and were saying something over tanoy but couldn't hear over the outboard exhaust. Just waved at them and carried on.

Yes big when up close. Yard at Graythorpe moving quite a lot of stuff atm.
Some bigish cable layers in and out of the docks heading to the dogger bank project. It's painted on the side of the ships.

Looks impressive but not sure about valve for money.

 

[Beeezer]

To give an idea of size, each one of the blades is almost 100m long

ive spent a lot of time in the factory in Hull where they are made

the diameter at the mounting flange is so large you can drive a transit van through

i may even have some pics somewhere

these things are absolutely enormous

Do you think one could fit three T Rex though the mounting flange?

 

[Morrisman]

To give an idea of size, each one of the blades is almost 100m long

ive spent a lot of time in the factory in Hull where they are made

the diameter at the mounting flange is so large you can drive a transit van through

i may even have some pics somewhere

these things are absolutely enormous

I've seen them in component form, sat on the docks in Halifax when I was working offshore Canada. Absolutely massive. The generator part was as big as two double decker buses parked side by side. God only knows how they assemble them in place.

 

[Keith 66]

Good for the fish then - we're in the process of decimating our fish stocks, so anything like this is a win win.

Maybe, maybe not, there is some evidence that the electrical fields from the cables affect marine life. The turbines can also affect weather to some extent as in certain conditions the lower pressure downwind will cause fog banks to form, There was an amazing photo doing the rounds a few years back of a windfarm off denmark, each turbine hada vapour trail from the tip of its blades, as they merged they grew bigger until a fog bank was generated many miles long.
When you consider that the blades are foam sandwich grp which is basically unrecylable & the energy costs in building & maintaining them they are far from green.

 

[bricol]

Many years ago, saw helicopters being used in the USA to build up the towers and I assume drop the top cabin on. Getting the hub for the blades on looked interesting . . . I wouldn't like to be the one with the podger bar . . .

 

[Keith 66]

Re the photo of the Redsand towers, The inner most army fort was on the Nore sand between Southend & Sheerness then Redsand & Shivering sands, Navy forts of different design were the Tongue tower off Margate, Knock John, Sunk head & Roughs tower off Harwich (now Sealand).
Much like the wind turbines the Thames forts were linked to the shore at Sheerness & together by cables for telegraph & communication.
In the 1960's many were taken over by Pirate radio stations until 1967 when they were banned & shut down by the marine offences act.
Then some fishermen found the cables.... they were heavy copper cores with steel wire outer & lead sheathing. Whole lot about 3 1/2" in dia.
A klondike style scrap operation ensued with a fleet of trawlers & workboats grappling for the cables then winching them over the bow & cutting them up into chunks that would fit into the hold. The work went on for many months & some people got rich on the proceeds! They also started stripping the forts themselves of generators & electrical gear left by the army & pirate stations.
One guy i knew Nate told a story of how after a day on the Red sand tower chopping out cables they had filled the trawler with scrap, his skipper & mate decided to run into Queenboro unload & return for another load later leaving Nate on the fort to keep working.
But when they went into the scrapyard the Skipper & mate found the scrap price of copper had soared overnight & they got a huge payout.
So they went to the Old house at home to celebrate & went on a massive bender.
Two days later they remembered Nate was still on the fort & returned for him.
He had run out of water, had no food & was eyeing up seagulls to see if he could eat one!

 

[Aerohead]

Close to each other must be good for the fish over time.

Damage caused to whales migrating on the other hand, not to mention undiscussed carnage to migratory birds, not good!!

 

[Maker]

That is a long blade.Maybe they are longer on the ones for the sea. I've been quite close to some operating on dry land. They could be bit shorter?

This video from Vestas gives a sense of how absolutely f'king massive they are. This is a prototype of an offshore turbine, assembled on land.

I'm sure I've seen a picture of an offshore turbine next to a land one as a size comparison but I can't find it now.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

The sea ones have a lift inside. It plays Radio two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the ones I was working on.
Fantastic 2 weeks.
Servicing the extinguishers.

But now the company who has that work leaves them 25% spares. They service them. They get taken to the farm and the ones there are swopped out. Returned to shore, they get serviced and it repeats.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Close to each other must be good for the fish over time.

Damage caused to whales migrating on the other hand, not to mention undiscussed carnage to migratory birds, not good!!

I don't know about migratory birds but seagulls and cormorants will happily follow a fishing boat into the turbines. Must have had 50+ gulls swooping down on us when we were gutting fish and they would go through the blade path with no issues.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I don't know about migratory birds but seagulls and cormorants will happily follow a fishing boat into the turbines. Must have had 50+ gulls swooping down on us when we were gutting fish and they would go through the blade path with no issues.

They soon adapt, it is natures way.

Same happened of Lundy, when they sank the block ships. 2 years in and it was like nothing happened.
The same with the ships they sink as reefs, nature overcomes.

 

[chunkolini]

Its weird these things almost call me in like The Sirens in Jason and the Argonauts

 

[Wildefalcon]

Maybe, maybe not, there is some evidence that the electrical fields from the cables affect marine life. The turbines can also affect weather to some extent as in certain conditions the lower pressure downwind will cause fog banks to form, There was an amazing photo doing the rounds a few years back of a windfarm off denmark, each turbine hada vapour trail from the tip of its blades, as they merged they grew bigger until a fog bank was generated many miles long.
When you consider that the blades are foam sandwich grp which is basically unrecylable & the energy costs in building & maintaining them they are far from green.

I think that building them isn't exactly green, about the same as any other power generation facility, but I think they are quite a bit greener to run compared to fossil fuel powered power generators.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I don't know about migratory birds but seagulls and cormorants will happily follow a fishing boat into the turbines. Must have had 50+ gulls swooping down on us when we were gutting fish and they would go through the blade path with no issues.

Tescos in barrow put up a wind turbine in the car park. Apprentices out of the yard would go for dinner, finish their sarnies and throw the crusts into the blade disc to see how many seagulls they could get. They ended up painting a blade black which seemed to work

 

[Morrisman]

When you consider that the blades are foam sandwich grp which is basically unrecylable & the energy costs in building & maintaining them they are far from green.

Unrecyclable?
No problemo....

 

[brightspark]

Unrecyclable?
No problemo....

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bet they wont have any surface water problem and needing land drainage